Dowsing

Ailz has a witchy party trick where she dowses the number and sex of a person's children (already born or to come) by swinging a pendulum over their open palm. It works with both men and women- and I've never known her get it wrong. Here she is performing it with our niece, Jenny.

Bosnians

A young woman comes to the door. She's wearing a headscarf and an ankle-length skirt. It's not entirely beside the point that she's pretty.

"No Muslim?" she asks. I guess she's been told that this is a Muslim street.

"No, I'm not a Muslim," I say.

She bows from the waist, hands held together as if in prayer,  then extends one hand, open,  with a pound coin lying on the palm. She says other things- mostly in a foreign language- out of which I pick the one word "Bosnian".

As I turn to go back into the house to fetch her what she wants I see another young woman, similarly dressed, on the pavement behind her.

I give her a coin. She bows again and says, "God bless you."  I say, "God bless you too."

Ailz, who has been watching from an upstairs window tells me that there's a whole gang of them going house to house.